MLB says it’s the longest home run hit so far this season. Still, I’ll gladly have the Dodgers give up one monster shot per game if they can also have the kind of offensive performance they’re having tonight.
It’s not just that he leads the team in strikeouts, it’s that he’s struck out 40 times and walked… 3. Here’s a list of all the players in MLB history who have struck out ten or more times for every walk but been good hitters:
Having established that, Lawrie didn’t start out this way. In his brief rookie season he was as good a hitter as Josh Donaldson is now, and in his second year he was still okay, and he just gets worse every year. I would normally blame the Blue Jays and their continued inability to develop young talent - their track record is just astounding bad these last few years, as their young players ALWAYS seem to get worse. All their developmental successes are players acquired from other organizations - Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion - when they hit their prime who just needed a little tinkering.
But now Lawrie is in Oakland, an organization properly regarded as knowing how to develop young talent, and he’s still getting worse. As noted in the April thread in one game he struck out four times in one game and went down on three pitches every time, which I am sure I have never seen in my entire life. It’s hard not to square this up with his personality; as one Toronto commentator put it, “Brett plays baseball in a red mist.” He is immensely physically talented but seems unable to control himself or the way he plays - the dirty breakup slide this year was a famous example, and a few years ago he went utterly apeshit at an ump, but he just routinely plays baseball like that too. It’s DUDE RED BULL GIMME SOME MORE RED BULL HIT SLIDE HIT KILL WHOA INTENSE BRO MORE RED BULL at all times, which
a) Gets you hurt a lot, and
b) Is exactly how you end up sucking in MLB.
Baseball is not a game friendly to the Brett Lawries of the world. It’ll hurt you little by little as you crash around the stadium, and if you’re not patient and observant, you can be damn sure your opponents are VERY patient and observant and will find your weaknesses and exploit them without pity or remorse. The heck with steroids; Brett Lawrie needs Valium to be a pro ballplayer.
Rookie Chris Heston of the Giants pitched a two-hit complete game with 10 Ks. Good on him.
And rookie Matt Duffy had 5 RBIs.
Great to see Devin Mesoraco pick up a walk off RBI to win against the poopy pants Braves last night. The kid is going to be a STAR. Just like Billy Hamilton.
The Indians Corey Kluber had a no-hitter through 6.2 innings tonight, and was working a one-hitter with 18 strikeouts (tying a club record) after 8. He’d thrown 113 pitches, and Cleveland had a 2-0 lead.
So of course they pulled him in the 9th.
epic double play by the Cubs
1B Rizzo lets the ball drop on purpose to throw the double play instead of catching it the air for one out
http://m.mlb.com/video/v114202683/
I’ve heard this discussed hypothetically before but can’t recall ever seeing it done
That’s why there’s an infield fly rule.
Huh. I didn’t know that the infield fly rule doesn’t apply when the batter is attempting a bunt. Interesting. That was a good play.
ETA: And there was no force at third on the Cubs play, so no IFR anyway.
Infield fly rule is only in effect for runners on 1st and 2nd. The Mets only had a runner on 1st. However, it’s true that the infield fly rule does not apply on a bunt attempt. If the Mets bunter had actually ran he might have been able to beat out the double play.
In his first couple years in Toronto, definitely. Since then, not so much (he’s been decidedly average):
Not entirely sure what happened to him to turn him from a player who had a dWAR of 2.3 in 2012 into one who’s had 0.6 and 0.4 the last two season. Or whose Fielding Runs Above Average went from 14 in 2012 to -9 in 2013 and 3 in 2014, but something has shifted.
Yeah, the reason there’s no IFR with only a runner on first is that a ‘dropped’ fly should only result in one out (at second), with the batter ending up safely at first, so the end result of the play is the same (an out, with a runner on first base). But that’s only assuming the batter actually runs to first base, and doesn’t just stand at home plate watching the play unfold in front of him.
Harvey ought to be fined $100 in the kangaroo court for that play.
Yeah, his muscles and bones. He’s hurt all the time, that’s why his numbers are poorer. When healthy, he’s amazing, but he’s never healthy.
The Jays also started farting around with playing him at second base in 2014, which was in my opinion just stupid. I’m sure he could play fine there - he played second in the minors - but it was pointless tinkering and asking a player to play multiple positions is always inadvisable.
I’ve seen this happen many times on bunts. But, as often as I’ve seen it, I could see it ten times more often if defenses were more alert for it. There’s something about popping up a bunt that makes a batter freeze like a deer in the headlights. They compound the physical mistake of botching the bunt with the mental mistake of not running. It’s baseball, folks. When you hit the ball, you’re supposed to run to first base.
Unfortunately, they’ve given up a couple of blasts over the last two nights, without enough offensive performance in the late innings to make up for it. Frustrating, but that’s baseball for ya.
Tonight, Kershaw goes for his 100th win, for like the twentieth time or something. Hope he gets some offense this time to back him up.
I saw an article about how the Phillies are shopping their veterans, among them Jon Papelbon. As a Dodgers fan, I’m kinda hoping…Kenley and Papelbon in the same pen? Solve those late inning meltdowns pretty well, I would think.
I probably shouldn’t admit that I’ll be there, in case that jinxes it. But the guy has been jinxed the whole season so far.
Kershaw just didn’t have it his last couple of starts. Don’t dump all the blame on the offense.
Cubs hada great game today against the Pirates
it lasted 5 hours
at one point they were winning 7-1 but they Cubs’d it up and went into extras tied at 10
they had a chance in the bottom of the 10th. Starlin Castro was on third with one out and Matt Sczcur hit a shallow fly ball to right and it was caught and Starlin was unwisely sent home and easily tagged out. Before the pussification of the game we might have gotten a cool collision play, but nope, just a boring tag out
Anyway the bottom of the 12th still tied the same scenario. Castro on third, one out, Sczcur hits a fly ball into shallow right
and this happens
http://m.cubs.mlb.com/chc/video/v116414083/pitchc-szczur-walks-off-cubs-with-single-in-12th/
epic simply epic
in the top of the 12th the Pirates were running out of players and brought in a starting pitcher to pinch hit. He hit a ball deep into the right field corner but the Cubs guy just barely got it. That’s the kind of cool things you don’t see in the American League
My case grows stronger. Dickey is too old.
Toronto needs a regime change. The attempt to sort of two-thirds win now has gone on a few years now and it isn’t working.
No, not all of the blame, just some of it. In 4 of Kershaw’s 8 starts this year, the Dodgers offense scored 2 runs or less.